As you’re working in a versified book (primarily Bibles and commentaries) you’ll find yourself constantly typing Bible verses in its reference box. For example, if you’re in a Bible you can type Ps 23 in the reference box, press the Enter key and jump to that location. Here are a couple of little tricks to help out in that reference box:

You can press Ctrl + G (PC) or Cmd + G (Mac) to select all of the text in the reference box. This saves you from having to constantly move the cursor into the box and manually select text.

Make sure to use abbreviations: Jn 3:16 or jn3.16 or jn3 16 all will take you to John 3:16.

Use a ‘super short’ reference to navigate within the same section of a Bible or commentary. For example, if the reference box contains John 10.2, press Ctrl + G or Cmd + G to select the text, just type 10, and press the Enter key to jump to John 10:10! Type 17.1 to jump to John 17:1.

They’re contributors to one of the world’s top Christian magazines: Tabletalk, which is now on Pre-Pub. Each month, Tabletalk’s contributor list is a veritable who’s who of trusted Christian scholarship. For thirty years Ligonier’sTabletalk has consistently published award winning issues with Christianity’s most trusted thinkers—and now Logos users can have every issue produced between 1989–2010. That’s 265 issues!

Here’s a quick sample of some recent articles by some of today’s high-profile leaders:

And with Logos, you can search every issue by topic, Scripture reference, or by author.

Is Tabletalk a wonderful resource? Absolutely! But don’t just take our word for it, check out these endorsements from actual contributors:

Tabletalk has been a key ingredient in the diet of Christians conscious of their spiritual vitality.—Michael S. Horton

Month by month, Tabletalk represents an oasis in a desert of false spirituality, mindless Christianity, and vapid conviction. Tabletalk represents theological rigor, biblical Christianity, and authentic Christian devotion. It is an antidote to the world of superficial Christianity. Read it and grow.—R. Albert Mohler, Jr.

Tabletalk has been a wonderful resource in my own daily walk with the Lord.—Ravi Zacharias

Make sure you get your 265 complete issues of Tabletalk—while it is still on Pre-Pub!

A couple of long-awaited additions—that users have been requesting for years—have recently been included on our Pre-Pub page: The New Interpreter’s Bible (12 vols.) and the New Interpreter’s Dictionary (5 vols.). In the two short weeks since these two collections have hit our Pre-Publication list, they have each gathered nearly half of the interest needed to send them into production. I’m pleased to see such a warm welcome for some of today’s most comprehensive resources for biblical study!

In case these titles are new to you, let me tell you a bit more about each—they are definitely worth a second look:

Deemed “the standard in contemporary biblical studies,” The New Interpreter’s Bible (12 vols.) is composed of a staggering 11,591 pages, penned by top biblical scholars. Not only is this commentary set impressive in girth, its sheer number of illustrations, maps, charts, timelines, and other visual aids add depth of content. Contributors include:

Walter Brueggemann

Walter C. Kaiser

Leander Keck

And many others

And, have you ever come across an unknown topic, person, or place in the Bible and wondered “How do I even begin to research this?” The New Interpreter’s Dictionary (5 vols.) provides a fantastic place to gain meticulously researched knowledge on a wide variety of subjects. Let the 900 contributing scholars do the work for you as you seek a better understanding of the Word! Edited by Katharine Doob Sakenfeld, this compendium clarifies biblical terms from A to Z.

Ultimately—whether you are a pastor, Bible study leader, or layperson—you’ll find these two collections to be catalysts for deeper Bible study. As 2011 continues to unfold, let the New Interpreter’s volumes illuminate the Scriptures for you.

If you are one of the many people who have asked for these books in Logos format, now is your chance to pre-order! If you are just in the market for two major reference sets—which are fully-tagged, fully-linked Logos resources—look no further. The The New Interpreter’s Bible (12 vols.) and the New Interpreter’s Dictionary (5 vols.) are premier resources that would be an asset to any resource collection.

Commentaries are some of our bestselling books. For many pastors, they’re the first stop in the process of sermon preparation. For lay readers, they offer a comprehensive account of the biblical text that’s hard to find anywhere else.

This bundle of reference books contains a library of commentaries written by a wide range of pastors and scholars:

Charles R. Swindoll on Romans

Bruce Waltke on Genesis

Craig L. Blomberg on James

… and that’s just the start.

With Logos Bible Software, your commentaries appear at the top of the Passage Guide. That means if you’re doing a sermon on Genesis 1 next Sunday, the Passage Guide will show you relevant content from Bruce Waltke’s commentary on Genesis—even if you weren’t looking for it!

4. Important Works on Hermeneutics and Interpretation

Some of the most important works on hermeneutics and interpretation published in the past few years are found in this collection. Kevin J. Vanhoozer’s Is There a Meaning in This Text?, for example, is the kind of book that appears once every decade or two. D. A. Carson writes that “Vanhoozer is one of the few contemporary scholars who takes a balanced measure of postmodern thought within an unflinching Christian confessionalism.” This book is an essential read for anyone seeking to understand how to interpret the text of the Bible.

An Introduction to the Old Testament, by Tremper Longman III and Raymond B. Dillard

An Introduction to the New Testament, by D. A. Carson and Douglas J. Moo

These are two standard works on the Bible written by a group of top-notch evangelical scholars, and they’re required reading in many seminaries and Bible colleges. They provide a wealth of background material on each book of the Bible, summarize all the recent research, and provide detailed bibliographies.

2. The Perfect Add-on Library

We always get questions from users who’ve purchased a base package and who are looking to expand their library. Maybe you got a base package for Christmas, and you’re looking to add some more quality commentaries and Bible reference works. If that’s you, then you couldn’t do better than the Zondervan Bible Reference Bundle 2. It’s a well-rounded collection of resources to complement the core group of books that came with your base package.

If you purchased these books in print individually, you would spend well over a thousand dollars, even if you hunted down the best sale prices. With this collection, however, we’ve worked out a special arrangement with Zondervan to offer this bundle at a discount while it’s on Pre-Pub. If you do the math, you’ll see that this collection works out to around $19 per volume. That’s an incredible deal!

These books are an even better value when you consider how much more useful they are as part of your digital library.

But remember, this price goes away next week when this Pre-Pub ships. You need to pre-order today to get the discount!

There are some works you should just read, particularly if you’re interested in the Greek of the New Testament. Deissmann’s Light from the Ancient East (LAE) is in this category. It is an incredible book, filled with transcriptions, translations, pictures and discussions of how papyri, ostraca and inscriptions (largely those found in garbage heaps) shed light on how we understand the Greek of the New Testament. Pre-Deissmann, many thought that the Greek used in the New Testament was a special sort of Greek; after Deissmann, we realize that non-literary sources teach us a lot about the Greek used in the New Testament. It’s a book that (at least from my perspective) everyone should read. The only collection that contains Light from the Ancient East is the Portfolio collection. If you don’t have Portfolio and LAE sounds interesting, you might want to look into buying Light from the Ancient East as an individual download.
While many of you may already have Deissmann’s Light from the Ancient East (it was one of our first community pricing titles from back in 2005!), did you know that Logos offers other useful books written by Deissmann?One of them is Bible Studies, which uses the linguistic and cultural insights gleaned from Deissmann’s study of papyri and ostraca and applies them to specific passages of the New Testament. It is a truly useful book, so much so that BDAG frequently cites it by page. And this one isn’t even in Portfolio, so if you don’t already have it, you’ll want to check it out.
We’ve also recently released a two-volume collection of books by Adolf Deissmann, the Adolf Deissmann New Testament Studies Collection. The two titles included are The Philology of the Greek Bible and St. Paul: A Study in Social and Religious History.The Philology of the Greek Bible is based on lectures Deissmann gave as a visiting scholar at Cambridge in the early 1900’s. The key here is that these lectures are about the Greek Bible, not just the New Testament. They ooze with knowledge from Deissmann’s extensive work with non-literary (i.e. not classical literature, such as Homer, Plato, etc.) sources. The text is easy to read (I read it using Logos on my iPod) and relatively engaging.
I’ve not read St. Paul: A Study in Social and Religious History yet, but hope to fit it into my reading over the next few months. It will be interesting to see how Deissmann applies his knowledge to the study of a person.
Anyway, these are wonderful books, and they really do provide a lot of applied knowledge of the Greek of the New Testament to help us better understand the linguistic and cultural context of the New Testament.

In Logos Bible Software 4 you can create various types of documents in the File menu: Prayer Lists, Passage Lists, Notes, etc. After a while, when you return to the File menu to open a document, you’ll probably discover a long list of various types of documents. Locating the specific one you want may prove challenging. Here’s a little trick to hopefully help out:

Choose the File menu

In the Find or Search box to the right of Open type:

Passage to display only your Passage Lists

Prayer to display only your Prayer Lists

Note to display only your Note files

Reading to display only your Reading Plans

You get the idea. This tip obviously reduces a long list to a manageable list.

Of all the categories of books we feature, commentaries are consistently one of our top sellers. When you stop and consider all of the commentaries that we offer, you want to pay attention to the ones who are regularly strong sellers. The Word Biblical Commentary (59 vols.) has been one of our most popular collections at Logos Bible Software. Time and again, customers have shown us that this set of commentaries is an important place for them to draw biblical insights. For users who have the Word Biblical Commentary (59 vols.) collection, it is helpful to be kept abreast of new additions to the series.

To this end, we wanted to draw attention to the Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 8: Judges by Trent C. Butler. This commentary on Judges went live on Pre-Pub January 20, 2011. Within a couple hours it had generated half of the revenue needed to move it from Pre-Pub and into production. You don’t want to miss out on an opportunity to add this commentary to your Word Biblical Commentary collection while it is on Pre-Pub.

The Word Biblical Commentary series is beloved for its balanced insight into the meanings of the text within the structured framework of biblical theology. This even-handed use of the biblical text is what has made this a wildly popular series for everyone from laymen to educators and ministers. The Word Biblical Commentary series starts with a foundation of solid biblical scholarship and builds upon it a meticulous theological understanding.

If you have the Word Biblical Commentary (59 vols.) collection, the only volume you will not have for your set is the Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 8: Judges by Trent C. Butler. If you do not own any of the Word Biblical Commentary series then the Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 8: Judges is a great place to start. You can pick it up today at the special Pre-Pub price and—once you realize how invaluable it is—you will soon be picking up the entire set.

Now that the holidays have passed, a new quarter (or semester) has begun. And I don’t know about you, but every year, Winter Quarter at college hit me hard. Something about the short, dark days and enough rain to make swimming to classes the most efficient form of transportation just seemed to combine poorly with my academic schedule and ambitious study plans.

Maybe you know a freshman college student, or maybe you are a freshman college student, and this is your first year navigating the dreaded Winter Quarter. Sunny days and flip-flops seem a long way off, and you (or your child, friend, niece, nephew, grandchild, or former youth group student) are still adjusting to life on campus. Well, I’ve got some great news for you! Logos now has a fantastic, encouraging resource that will help keep you grounded in your faith during this continued time of transition.

As the world around us continues to change, life on campus during the 21st century keeps evolving at the same rapid rate. Letters to a Student is a comprehensive resource, articulating the challenges that today’s college student faces—challenges that did not exist even 10-20 years ago! In addition, Letters addresses ways of tackling some of the core issues that we all must face when we leave home for that bachelor’s degree, whether it was decades ago or now, in 2011.

But Letters to a Student isn’t all we have to offer the college student. Our base packages include not only numerous Bible translations and commentaries, but also key features such as our Bible Reading Plan and Prayer List. These tools are the perfect solution to keep the student in your life grounded in the Word.

And, here at Logos, we understand how hard college can be, not on one’s faith but also on one’s pocket book. That’s why we created our two scholarships—Bible College and Seminary Scholarship—both recently featured on the blog. The January deadline has passed, but there’s still hope for you if you qualify! Our next deadline for each is May 10, 2011. Scholarship winners receive $1,000.00 towards tuition as well as a Scholar’s Library that, in print, would cost over $8,000.00.

So grab a cup of coffee, settle in, and let Logos help you through this year’s Winter Quarter.

By the way, here’s a sampling of our other fantastic resources, specifically catered to the student:

Since Camp Logos doesn’t make it to the UK that often, we’re adding a feature-packed, optional third day of training on February 17th that will include many of the topics normally covered in Camp Logos 2.

In case you’re unfamiliar with Camp Logos, allow me to explain. As an owner of Logos Bible Software you know how powerful it is. Are you, however, unleashing that power? Most Logos users admit to only using a fraction, perhaps 10%, of the software’s potential. Camp Logos, a two-day, hands-on training seminar, equips you to unlock much of the other 90%. For over 13 years, the authorized Logos trainer, Morris Proctor with MP Seminars, has trained thousands of Logos users at Camp Logos. Pastors, professors, Bible study leaders, housewives, truck-drivers and more have all benefited from Morris’ thorough and practical presentation.

New Logos users state that Morris teaches them more in two days than they could learn in two years on their own. Seasoned Logos users testify they thought they knew the program until they attended Camp Logos.

We want you to experience firsthand the excitement of Camp Logos. So if you’ll be in the London area February 15–16, please register for Camp. If you’re thinking of vacationing in the UK, why not add Camp Logos to your agenda?

For a complete schedule and registration information, click here. And don’t forget to sign up for the additional third day of training which covers many of the features discussed in Camp Logos 2.

It is a sweet thing to be a part of a company that’s willing to give away thousands of dollars and life-changing resources. Since 2009, Logos has been giving students the opportunity to have a portion of their seminary or Bible college tuition paid and to win a digital theological library that will remain theirs long after they leave college.

It is especially sweet to give it away when you get a response like we received from our latest BibleCollegeScholarship.comwinner, Charissa M. of Hanover, PA.:

“Thank you, thank you, thank you so much! God is so incredibly, unfathomably faithful! What a blessing, joy, and surprise this scholarship is!”

Charissa attends Moody Bible Institute. In her own words,

“Three summers ago, in the Dominican Republic, the Lord awoke my heart and set it afire with passion for third-world missions and a renewed brokenness for the lost and forgotten. I couldn’t wait for my chance to go out into the world and build relationships with those people—loving them, living like them, learning from them, serving, and teaching them the Truth of Jesus. Like Ezekiel was fed the Lord’s scroll, I feel God is feeding me and filling me with His Truth, sharpening me in preparation for the challenges He has in store. I am studying at Moody Bible Institute – Spokane for a B.A. in Biblical Studies and Intercultural Missions. While I am being given a solid foundation in my training and I am learning much about God’s Word, how to share the Truth, and apply it to our individual lives, the greatest thing I am developing is an intense, consuming growth of intimacy in my own relationship with Jesus Christ. I hope to live within a third-world community in the future, whether in the Middle East, India, Africa, etc., and build meaningful, eternity-changing relationships overtime with the natives. I wish to stand up for the abused, protect the weak, and cherish the unwanted! Whether that reflects in caring for my own bundle of orphans, rescuing women and children from human trafficking, or something completely different, I can’t wait to see where God is leading me and how He uses these burdens of my heart.”

Nancy is originally from California where she attended Simpson University and graduated with a B.A. in History. She will graduate from Gordon Conwell this May (2011) with an M.A. in Old Testament. The focus of her degree at Gordon Conwell has been in Hebrew Exegesis and multiple other Ancient Near Eastern language courses. Her hope is to start doctoral work this fall upon acceptance to one of three programs in the Boston area.

New Rounds, New Winners

Our new giveaway rounds are under way and the giveaway date is set for May 10th! You can enter only once per round, but can increase your chances of winning by telling friends and family to apply as well. Just make sure they enter your name in the “Other” box, when they’re asked how they heard about the scholarship. If we select your friend, and they indicate they heard from you, we’ll give you the scholarship too!

The scholarships are open to all students currently enrolled in an accredited theological Seminary or Bible College located in North America, or those who plan on enrolling within the next 8 months. All you have to do is watch a demonstration of Logos Bible Software and fill out a brief application. Once your application is submitted you will be entered to win a $1,000.00 scholarship and a digital theological library that, in print, would cost nearly $8,000.00!